NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – December 18, 2024
A hat trick for Patrik Laine, a record-setting milestone for Connor Hellebuyck, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF TUESDAY’S ACTION
NHL.COM: Patrik Laine tallied three power-play goals for his 11th career hat trick as the Montreal Canadiens thumped the Buffalo Sabres 6-1. Juraj Slafkovsky had a goal and an assist while Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson each collected two assists. Dylan Cozens has the Sabres only goal as their winless skid stretched to 11 games (0-8-3).
Montreal Canadiens winger Patrik Laine (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The pep talk the Sabres received from team owner Terry Pegula on Monday landed on deaf ears. Their defensive play was atrocious, especially on the penalty kill. Laine was left undefended on all three goals from his wheelhouse at the top of the faceoff circle. He has six goals and seven points in his seven games since returning from a sprained knee.
Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets became the fastest American-born goaltender to reach 20 wins in a season as he backstopped his club to a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Hellebuyck made 32 saves as Adam Lowry tallied the game-winner with 1:13 remaining in the third period. Kyle Connor scored twice and Mark Scheifele had a goal and an assist for the Jets. Macklin Celebrini and Tyler Toffoli each had a goal and an assist for the Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sharks backup goalie Vitek Vanecek left the game in the second period when he was struck in the face by an errant puck while sitting on the bench. There was no postgame update on his status. Before this game, Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky was fined $25,000.00 by the league for “inappropriate conduct” during Saturday’s game against the Utah Hockey Club.
The Jets also made history when they signed prospect Kevin He to an entry-level contract. Chosen by the Jets in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Draft, He is the first Chinese-born player to sign an NHL contract.
Nashville Predators netminder Juuse Saros had a 25-save performance to shut out the New York Rangers 2-0. Jonathan Marchessault and Adam Wilsby were the goal scorers, with the latter getting the first of his NHL career. Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves for the Rangers, who’ve lost three straight games and five of their last six.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rangers winger Kaapo Kakko returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch from Sunday’s loss to the St. Louis Blues. He didn’t hide his frustration over the situation. “I know you’ve got to do something as a coach when you’re losing games, but I think it’s just easy to pick a young guy and boot him out. That’s how I feel, to be honest,” he said, adding that he hasn’t been the worst player on the Rangers roster.
Carolina Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 32 shots in a 4-0 shutout of the New York Islanders. Sebastian Aho and Shayne Gostisbehere each had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes. Isles netminder Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves as his club has lost three of their last four.
The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3. Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist to extend his goal streak to seven games and Nick Paul had a goal and an assist as the Lightning have won three in a row. Blue Jackets forward Kirill Marchenko collected two assists.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blue Jackets defenseman Dante Fabbro left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury. He has seven points in 17 games since being claimed off waivers by the Jackets on Nov. 10.
An overtime goal by Rickard Rakell lifted the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Rakell and Michael Bunting each had two points while Alex Nedeljkovic turned aside 29 shots for the win. Adrian Kempe and Alex Turcotte replied for the Kings.
New Jersey Devils forward Stefan Noesen scored in his 400th regular-season game as his club beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1. Jake Hughes picked up two assists as the Devils leapfrogged the Washington Capitals into first place in the Eastern Conference with 45 points. Jordan Kyrou scored for the Blues.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Devils forward Curtis Lazar was activated off injured reserve for this game. He’d been sidelined by a lower-body injury since Oct. 27.
Speaking of the Capitals, they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Chicago Blackhawks. Ilya Mikheyev, TJ Brodie and Ryan Donato netted three unanswered third-period goals as the Blackhawks picked up their second straight victory. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane scored for the Capitals as they’ve lost two straight games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Capitals received approval from the Washington D.C. city council to conduct a major arena renovation to Capital One Arena earlier in the day.
David Pastrnak scored in overtime as the Boston Bruins nipped the Calgary Flames 4-3. The Bruins forced the extra frame with unanswered third-period goals by Morgan Geekie and Marc McLaughlin. Matt Coronato, Nazem Kadri and Ryan Lomberg scored for the Flames.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Calgary Flames signed defenseman Brayden Pachal to a two-year contract extension with an average annual value of $1.187 million.
The Ottawa Senators picked up their fourth straight win by blanking the Seattle Kraken 3-0. Linus Ullmark stopped 30 shots for the shutout while Shane Pinto, Noah Gregor, and Tim Stutzle were the goal scorers. Kraken goalie Joey Daccord made 24 saves.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: With 34 points, the Senators hold a one-point lead over the Penguins for the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
IN OTHER NEWS…
TORONTO SUN: Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz will be out for four to six weeks as he’ll undergo a procedure to remove a pebble-sized bump from the back of his knee.
SPORTSNET: Speaking of the Leafs, they’ve sent forward Fraser Minten to their AHL affiliate and activated forward David Kampf off injured reserve.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Oilers winger Zach Hyman missed practice on Tuesday as he had a medical appointment regarding his broken nose. He suffered the injury during Monday’s loss to the Florida Panthers when a shot from teammate Evan Bouchard struck him. Hyman is expected to be in the lineup for Thursday’s game against the Boston Bruins.
DAILY FACEOFF: Vegas Golden Knights forward Ivan Barbashev is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
DAILY FACEOFF: Colorado Avalanche forward Chris Wagner and New Jersey Devils forward Justin Dowling were placed on waivers yesterday.
Well,
Pens WERE in a playoff spot for a couple of hours.
That’s twice Ullmark has cost us over a 4 day span. You’re on Santa’s naughty list Linus!
Perhaps Sens have turned the corner . 4 straight wins; 750 hockey over the last 10 (yes I realize 9 of those games were vs. non-playoff teams; still 750 hockey!!).
I expect Sens’ skeptics will say that next 8 games are on the road, 6 are against playoff teams; and only 1 of the 8 is played in the Eastern conference.
I expect there will be Sens’ diehards seeing it as a golden opportunity away from local media pressure.
What say you Sens fans; a little less uneasy, or fearing this Western swing vs. 6 (currently) playoff-bound teams.
Well, 8787, it turns out we Senators fans have nothing to worry about —this road trip will be easy peasy. At least if you look at the result only on paper! Yeah, right. One thing Senators fans ARE seeing now is how a good goalie can pull their fat out of the fire. Something we haven’t seen with any consistency for the past 3 seasons – at least.
Seattle opened with an intense attack as expected, lasting for the first 10 or 11 minutes, and when the scoreless 1st ended they held a 15 – 7 edge in shots, including several good scoring chances. But when Pinto and Gregor each potted their 4th midway through the 2nd, they settled into a perfect road game pattern that stymied the Kraken through to the end, and virtually none of their 15 shots in the 2nd and 3rd were anything close to good scoring chances, with Ullmark closing the door on any that were. As he said in his post-game comments, the key the team is settling into finally is to bend but not break.
Now it’s on to Calgary tomorrow night, where Ullmark is almost certain to start again, before meeting Edmonton and Vancouver in the first of their 3 back-to-backs on this trip on the 21st and 22nd. Be interesting to see if Green goes with Ullmark in both, or put the rookie Merilainen in for one. I suppose it will depend on how much work Ullmark gets in Edmonton, if he starts that game. But with 5 full days off before going into Winnipeg on the 28th it wouldn’t surprise me to see Ullmark in both.
Yes, most of the teams they now face are definitely playoff teams and so will be much harder nuts to crack … but they aren’t unbeatable.
You have to wonder – do the Senators fly home for Christmas following the Vancouver game and then take the shorter flight to Winnipeg on the 27th?
As for the Penguins, the turnaround in their game over the past 10 has been nothing short of impressive, especially their maligned goaltending. When L.A. scored 33 seconds in I thought … oh oh here comes the route, But they, too, bent but didn’t break and slowly took command of the play, even getting a key goal from your favourite D-man Grzelcyk!
Well, yep, time will tell.
My gut feeling is that Sens get 6 game points vs the playoff bound Western teams; and at that time although under the playoff bar; still very close, and post road trip within 3 points of s wild-card spot. So not too shabby after that tough 9 game road trip with a trio of back-to-backs.
Re Grzelcyck and his goal; quite literally the worst thing that could hsppen to Pens. I would have preferred the loss.
Don’t get me wrong; nice shot, great goal.
The issue is that Sully ONLY sees his offensive side. Sully id completely blind (and I do mean completely blind) to his completely awful defensive side.
Because he is so tiny (agree not his fault) he can’t move anybody out in front of Jarry and Nedjelkovic .
What is on him is his inability to position himself properly; and his repeated inability to get the puck out of the zone if there is any pressure.
He contributed to far more goals against than goals for.
With hid goal, now Sully will play him even more minutes.
Penguins are down their best defensive defenseman and inly have 2 RHDs
A trade to get Desharnais would have been perfect
A regulation loss last night and maybe that would have been a top priority for Dubas.
Pens with 7-2-1 over last 10 games , and a hair out of Wildcard spot (albeit with playing more games) gives an artificial sense of hope.
Changes are still badly needed.
Pens will still pick somewhere in the 8th-16th slot (in that range are a jumble of prospects who, at this time, have fairly close projected/expected NHL careers)
Why not strike noe for changes that help now and in future and keep interst in the Pens (halting declining viewership/attendance/merchandise sales).
Tomasino move was good
There are other opportunities out there (Deharnais is expected to br picked up cheaply, move on him)
Keeping my fingers crossed for getting first overall pick in ‘26 (McKenna) and/or ‘27 (DuPont)
My gut feeling is that yes, they will fly home to Ottawa for Christmas. The flight to WPG is not too tough and imagine how the morale would sink if they were told they cannot see family…
Ullmark looks solid. He doesn’t look spent after a good performance like Korpi always did. With Joonas you could almost SEE the loss coming in the next game after an all out game. He could never carry that over… Linus so far seems to be
I hate making any predictions because this team has let me down so much in the last couple years, but this is the first time in a while that I feel some confidence going into this stretch of games.
The Sens have some swagger now and it shows even in the bottom two lines, Shane Pinto especially!
George,
the whole team played well last night,
Especaly LU has given the lots of Confident in Goal
Starting to setle in the his soundings working with his d core….
28 yr old who is a UFA Adam Gaudette,
now has 17 points in 30 games he could get ++45 point this season….🤔
Valdar will be in net tonight…
Young Dustin Wolf played Great, But his d let him down last night……!
A trade thought,
Dylan Cousins $7.1M X 6 yrs
to the Sen’s for
RD-ZUB $2.5 yrs @ $4.3M and Dave Peron $4.M
and a 3rd or 2nd Round draft pick…..
at the draft The sen’s can trade a Shane Pinto
Or
DylanCousins for a good RD/man….❓🤔
8787, if your not Pengy, you must be related because you have similar traits.
Pick a D-man you don’t like, pound on him all year. I kind of understood it with Ruhdewal, or whatever the guy’s name was, as he was a borderline NHL player.
But with Grz, the opposite of what your saying is true.
The reason he is a minus 10 isn’t because the Pens get scored on more while he is on the ice. He has the lowest GA/60 (3.3) than any other regular D-man on the team, meaning the guys that play every game. Plus he draws tough competition. It’s why Sully plays him as much as he does.
The reason is he is minus 10 is because they only score 2.2 GF/60 when he is on the ice, even though he has 16 pts which is 2nd on the team for D.
Yes, he will get knocked around in the playoffs if the Pens make it, or at least he did in Boston.
The Pens and Grz both appear to be playing really well over their last 10 games.
You should be enjoying telling guys like me how wrong I was about them!
williew, the website editorinleaf.com has a suggested Buffalo / Toronto deal for Dylan Cozens.
Sabres would get Domi, OEL (to even out the cap dollars) plus Easton Cowen and an un-protected 2028 1st round pick.
Three years from now, I don’t think the Leafs would trade Cowen for Cozens, one for one.
Hi Ray
Again not Pengy and I doubt we’re related but maybe way back?? Who knows.
You got that wrong with my view on Ruhweedel. Pengy absolutely would dump on him; from his posts I’d say he hated him.
to me he was just a depth d-man that played in/around his Cap hit; could sit for a while then be called on to fill in when injuries happened. Some mistakes just like any depth D. Certainly not permanent 2nd pairing material; but fitting in when injuries happened and stretched at 3rd pairing RD; OK
He was not (and never will be) a Jack Johnson. Here I agree with Pengy. Johnson was just plain awful.
Now re Grzylcyk, not sure where you are getting your numbers. He is very bad defensively.
Setting aside the last handful of games where Penguins as a whole have been on an uptick and goaltending has been much better; before that, Gryzelcyk had s stretch of games (somewhere between 15-20) where collectively over that stretch he was on for just under 40% of the Goals against.
He had a stretch of 4 or 5 games when it was closing in on 50%.
Can’t speak to his Bruins days.
His Penguins days , regarding his defense only (not his offense) have been very bad.
Don’t take my word for it.
Journalist after journalist after journalist covering Pens this year have continuously spouted about their want to have him gone and how bad defensively he is.
Here is just one
Well past time for Penguins to sit Matt Grzelcyk
Kingerski, Yohe, Molinari, Erickson, Haase, Orpik, etc etc etc have all (rightfully so) pointed out how bad defensively Grzelcyk is and their want fir Dubas to move him
About 3 weeks ago when I posted his stats from Quant hockey he was -9 on 297 even strength minutes. That’s -1.8 per 60 mins at even strength. That was the worst on the team and by a long way
His downfall is partly because he’s tiny and can’t move anybody. But he’s also out of position very often in our end; pinches at inappropriate times leading to many many odd man rushes and goals against; and has trouble getting the puck out of our end when he is under pressure.
Once healthy this would be fine for Pens
Letang Pettersson
Karllsson Pickering
Graves Desharnais
Not a Habs fan (no kidding) but it’s been good to see Laine back and scoring goals. He’s had a ton of ups and downs but, when he’s at his best, he is fun to watch.
Agree. Good on him. I hope it continues this season and beyond. That is really the question mark. Can he string together some seasons where he plays this potential vs the ups n downs he has had over his career
Good to see a healthy Laine back👍
Patric Laine back and playing well with the Habs…
6 goals & 1 point in his first 7 gane’s so far, just what the habs needed….
i think in Early January we are going to see a bunch of trades happen lots of teams looking for 1,2,3 players to trade in & out….❓
Hammer,
Why would the want Domi…..he has been a dud again this year,
1 goal and 7 ass this year, 4yrs at $3.75M…..⁉️
and OEL,33 yrs old and 4 more years at $3.5M…
he is also LD man they have 6 LD already??
and only
2 RD, he, Jani Hakanpaa is going to be gone as a UFA 32 yrs old
so that Trade thought is a non starter✔️
would love to hear more buffalo trades…?
they have lots of good young pieces there…..🤔
“when you win say little. When you lose say less” I believe the old quote goes. Somehow Hamonic is still in the line up. Watched him get saved twice in the first period alone by Ullmark.
Rather than talk about the Sens. I’ll talk about Chinese hockey. Very quietly and behind a wall we can barely see behind……they’ve been getting VERY good at this game. Within my lifetime perhaps even the next 5-10 years you’ll see a wave of them hitting an age where suddenly a world junior team will emerge. And a really powerful one.
Dark G, agree they can’t keep trotting Hamonic out there for upwards of 20 minutes a game (20:51 last night), simply because putting him out there nightly alongside Sanderson on the 1st pairing is hampering Sanderson’s game.
I assume the search for a RD continues, but if anyone is due for some better luck it’s Zub who is reportedly close to returning from that foot fracture. Skill-wise, I doubt there is a better RD available anywhere … at least who won’t cost an arm and a leg. Getting him back alongside Sanderson, with Chabot/Jensen as the 2nd tandem, and Kleven and Bernard-Docker getting about 10:00 to 12:00 on the 3rd pairing (and Hamonic as the 7th D) makes that a much more solid structure.
Sabres defense was completely non existent. I heard broadcaster say that during the current 11 game losing streak they’ve had leads in 7 games, sometimes multiple goal leads. Their loose play simply cannot hold onto leads.
When a team blows a lead why does everybody always blame the defencemen. In the Toronto game the defence got absolutely no help from the forwards. Buffalo`s forwards blew so many assignments in that game. Any team is gonna blow leads when you get no help from your forwards. If I was Buffalo GM, I`d tie a T-bone steak around Zucker`s neck and hope another team bites
yogi, funny!! because it’s convenient for people to blame defense and goaltender. i can relate to forwards: the avalanche forwards are nowhere to be found at times defensively and yet we hear all night from the teams broadcast how out of this world they are? yes, they are great but you are still accountable to play defense for the rest of your teammates? most egregious defensive lapses are the forwards because they are too busy flying the zone, turning the puck over/ or just terrible at paying attention to trailers or their man entering the defensive zone for a quality chance as far as i can tell? would welcome others thoughts!
tommy boy, you could have been describing the Senators just before their past 7-2-1 record. The defense wasn’t the problem in their 20-game shaky start to the season, and while a case could be made for some early goaltending gaffes, it was the lack of a consistent 2-way game by too many key forwards. That seems to have been resolved over their past 10 … but I’ll hold my enthusiasm until the end of this marathon road trip.
Yogi, what’s the problem with Stolarz? Groin pull? Hamstring? Looks like Woll is going to be worked a lot for the next bit.
Stick tap to both you guys, you must be fellow D-men! (past)
Every skater has responsibilities to both offence a defense, obviously players have strengths and weaknesses in some areas. But if everyone isn’t on the same page, it doesn’t work.
It’s starting to get really ugly again in Buffalo. Man, do they need a win. Wow.
They found a chip the size of a marble in the back of his knee and it was causing him some discomfort and mobility. They decided better to remove it now. Guessing it`s been there for a while and it`s worked itself into a bad spot now
Yow. Those things can hurt. Way back when I played football I had chips on both elbows and they’d swell up like balloons until I had them removed. Times I couldn’t even comb my hair (back when I HAD hair 🙂 )
Will the real Boston Bruins step up?The group that played against Winnepeg and Seattle,or the team that played against Calgary and Vancouver?Have to give Sacco credit for a good timeout so they could regroup!The Lindholm comment at the end of the first period was right on! They asked him about their start and he said it was brutal!Speaking of Lindholm when is the other one scheduled to return?
Haha, no I don’t have tix for tonight, good thing!
Not sure why I thought it was tonight, maybe because it has been a BTB in AB for the B’s. Happy it isn’t, our odds of success just went up.
I would start Korpisalo.
Ray,why Korpisalo? Stay with the hot hand,isn t that why we paid for a no. 1 goalie?
Is Swayman hot? IMO, and in the stats, Korpi has been better this season.
I would play them more evenly if it was me.
Laine is a feelgood story for now, says all the right things to the media, the room seems to like him, fans are gushing over him……but it’s only been a few games.
He has the talent, quick release, even faster tan Caufield and mostly mages to find his spot even when everybody knows where it is, pretty impressive for a big man.
Habs have a good thing going now with Hutson and Suzuki having the vision and ability to tee up both Laine and Caufield.
Second half of this season might be interesting.